Flyers, Holmgren Have Work Cut Out for Free Agency

When an NHL General Manager goes into the off season, they know that they will have to crunch a lot of numbers.  With Paul Holmgren and the Philadelphia Flyers, the pencils were working overtime. 

He knew that his number one priority this off-season was to get Jeff Carter signed before the start of the Free Agency period on July 1st.  Carter was set to become a Restricted Free Agent, meaning that any other NHL team could make him a contract offer and the Flyers would have to match that in order to keep him. 

Before the days of the Salary-Cap, making an offer to a RFA was not done so often.  It was seen as a gentlemen's agreement not to make a run at that player.  The scene has changed, and signing players, especially young guns like Carter, is the only way to build a successful team. 

Paul Holmgren once again worked his magic and was able to sign the 23 year-old Center for a 3 year, $15mil deal before any team had a chance to snag him.  Carter set career highs in goals (29), assists (24), and points (53) while playing in all 82 games in the regular season.  He then added 11 more points in 17 playoff games. 

Withthe signing of Carter, Holmgren was not left withvery much money to be able to sign another RFA.  R.J. Umberger was dealt to the  Columbus Blue Jackets during the NHL Entry Draft along with a 2008 4th round pick in exchange for a first and third round pick in the 2008 draft. 

Umberger, a pivotal point to the Flyers playoff run, is returning to where he played his college hockey for Miami of Ohio.  The Flyers organization, as well as the fans, did not want to see R.J. leave.

Paul Holmgren stated, "R.J. is certainly a player that we didn’t want to trade, but we were forced to do something because where we are at with the Salary Cap.

We tried a lot of different things, a lot of different ways to work around it, nothing seemed to make sense and we had to do something. R.J. is considered a good player in the league.

He was a tremendous young man in our organization and a great player for us. It certainly hurts to make this move tonight and just get draft picks in return. We wish him well.”

There are a few hurdles left for Holmgren to clear.  Randy Jones and Riley Cote are both Restricted Free Agents.  Cote, the Flyers enforcer, is a fan-favorite and showed many signs of improvement this season. 

Jones was perhaps the Flyers most-improved player from previous seasons, showing tremendous defensive plays and timely offensive production.  Given Holmgren's wizardry in the past, we should expect to see these two players in orange-and-black next season.